


Practice Makes Almost Perfect

by actualbabe



Series: Tumblr Dialogue Prompts! [1]
Category: New Girl
Genre: F/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, botched engagement, engagement fic, nick is trying his best okay?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 22:36:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12874506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualbabe/pseuds/actualbabe
Summary: Nick's been at this for hours. His legs are starting to cramp up from kneeling for so long as he tries out endless combinations of cliches and declarations of love, desperate to find the one that will sweep Jess off her feet.But they all suck.





	Practice Makes Almost Perfect

“Um, uh hey there, Jess, my beautiful angel- no, that’s dumb.” Nick clears his throat and tries again.

“Heyoo-”  _What the actual fuck, Miller?_

“Okay.  _Ahem._ Jess, you’re super. I think you’re really neat. Would you maybe want to sorta kinda marry me?”  _C’mon, you clown._

“Jess, my pal. My roomie. My sex partner. Let’s do this thing. Me and you. A church maybe? Or not. That’s cool, too. I’m chill. No preferences here.”  _Jesus Christ. This is honestly just pathetic at this point._

“Day, or should I say Miller? Or Day-Miller? Miller-Day? Or I could change  _my_ name? We haven’t discussed that, have we? Anyways we should get married, sound good?”

Nick groans and stands up, ignoring the distressingly loud cracking noise his knees make on the way up. He’s too old for this. He should’ve done this years ago, but he’s a massive idiot (no surprise there). So here they are. They’ve lost so much time already, so many milestones they could’ve already hit but instead were cheated out of. But he can’t do anything about the past. So he’s trying to focus on the future. The future where Jess is wearing a gold band on her left hand and he casually calls her “his wife” like it’s no big deal, even though he’s been dreaming about this moment for longer than he’d like to admit.

Now if only he can man up and actually ask her to marry him.

He’s Googled “how to propose” so many times that all the advertisements on his computer are for engagement rings and wedding planners. It’s a good thing Jess never uses his writing laptop, because he’s trying to maintain some kind of secrecy around the whole thing. The silver ring from her favorite antique store has been either on his person or safely tucked inside his socks at the back of his drawer at all times. It’s a miracle that he’s managed to keep it hidden from her for this long.

He takes a deep breath, gives himself a reassuring slap on each cheek to focus up. Nick drops down to one knee in front of the mirror, holds out the ring, and stares up at the picture of Jess he taped to the glass. “Jessica, you are a beautiful woman, and my life has not been the same since I met you. And it would mean the world to me if you would marry me.”

There’s the sound of someone clearing their throat, and Nick glances over to the open doorway of their bedroom. Jess is leaning against the door frame with her arms folded over her chest, looking at him with a knowing smirk and a raised eyebrow.

Nick freezes, caught like a deer in the headlights. She was supposed to be gone for a few more hours. He thought he had more time to rehearse. “You’re home early,” he remarks.

“Uh huh.”

“Um.” He swallows nervously. “How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough.” Jess shifts her weight off the door frame and takes a step towards him. “You planning to make an honest woman out of me, Miller?”

This wasn’t how he had expected this to go. His wildest fantasies had included a hot air balloon ride and visiting all the important places of their relationship. His simplest was a nice dinner at the restaurant where they had their first not-really-a-date. Somewhere in the middle was a movie screening in the park with a homemade video halfway through, just like the surprise he planned for her birthday all those years ago.

But here he is. He’s kneeling in front of her with the silver ring he’s had for months and his sub-par proposal speech hanging in the air between them. They’re in loft: the place where he fell in love with her, the place where he realized that she was the only one for him. He’s been worrying himself sick about this for almost a year now, because Jess deserves something amazing. The proposal story that she’ll tell over and over again to their friends and their children and their grandchildren. This feels too simple, too ordinary. But at the same time it feels like it’s just right.

Nick grins up at her. “Well, what do you say?”

Jess beams. “Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> check me out on [tumblr!](http://actualbabe.tumblr.com/)


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